Birmingham
29 July 2017
opening reception on Sunday,
23 April, 6-8 pm
Image:
AERIAL OVERVIEW, LOOKING WEST, WITH BEE HIVE COKE OVENS IN FORESTED OVERGROWTH (BOTTOM LEFT), COKE TAILINGS PILE (BOTTOM RIGHT THROUGH CENTER TOP LEFT), FORMER BIRMINGHAM SOUTHERN RAILWAY SHOPS BUILDING (TOP RIGHT). CONVICT CEMETERY IS JUST WEST OF THE TAILINGS PILE (TOP LEFT IN THIS PHOTOGRAPH). - Pratt Coal & Coke Company, Pratt Mines, Convict Cemetery, Bounded by First Street, Avenue G, Third Place & Birmingham Southern Railroad, Birmingham, Jefferson County, AL
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division, Historic American Engineering Record, 1993 (HAER ALA,37-BIRM,38C-1).
Cameron Rowland
Birmingham
installation view Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2017
Cameron Rowland
Norfolk Southern (Tennessee), 2017
Steel relay rail
18 x 489 x 73 cm
Relay rail is rail that has been removed from its original line and resold. Relay rail was first sold by railroad companies to mining companies for pit railways. Steel rail is made using coal and iron ore.
In the late 1860s, the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad; the Georgia and Alabama Railroad; the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad; and the Macon and Brunswick Railroad were constructed using convict lease labor. By 1895 all of these lines had been consolidated into Southern Railway, which built hubs in Birmingham, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, allowing it to transport coal and iron ore throughout the Southeast. In 1982, Southern Railway merged with Norfolk and Western Railway to create Norfolk Southern. This Norfolk Southern relay rail was used in the Tennessee section of the system.
Cameron Rowland
Norfolk Southern (Tennessee), 2017
Steel relay rail
18 x 489 x 73 cm
Relay rail is rail that has been removed from its original line and resold. Relay rail was first sold by railroad companies to mining companies for pit railways. Steel rail is made using coal and iron ore.
In the late 1860s, the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad; the Georgia and Alabama Railroad; the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad; and the Macon and Brunswick Railroad were constructed using convict lease labor. By 1895 all of these lines had been consolidated into Southern Railway, which built hubs in Birmingham, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, allowing it to transport coal and iron ore throughout the Southeast. In 1982, Southern Railway merged with Norfolk and Western Railway to create Norfolk Southern. This Norfolk Southern relay rail was used in the Tennessee section of the system.
Cameron Rowland
Birmingham
installation view Galerie Buchholz, Köln 2017
Cameron Rowland
Jim Crow, 2017
Jim Crow rail bender
91.4 x 20 x 44 cm
Rental
Jim Crow is a racial slur, derived from the name of the minstrel character played by Thomas D. Rice in the 1830s. A Jim Crow is also a type of manual railroad rail bender. It has been referred to by this name in publications from 1870 to the present. The lease of ex-slave prisoners to private industry immediately following the Civil War is known as the convict lease system. Many of the first convict lease contracts were signed by railroad companies. Plessy v. Ferguson contested an 1890 Louisiana law segregating black railroad passengers. The Supreme Court upheld the law as constitutional. This created a precedent for laws mandating racial segregation, later to be known as Jim Crow laws.
Cameron Rowland
Norfolk Southern (Alabama), 2017
Steel relay rail
18 x 371 x 101.3 cm
Rental
Relay rail is rail that has been removed from its original line and resold. Relay rail was first sold by railroad companies to mining companies for pit railways. Steel rail is made using coal and iron ore.
In the late 1860s, the Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad; the Georgia and Alabama Railroad; the Selma, Rome and Dalton Railroad; and the Macon and Brunswick Railroad were constructed using convict lease labor. By 1895 all of these lines had been consolidated into Southern Railway, which built hubs in Birmingham, Chattanooga, and Atlanta, allowing it to transport coal and iron ore throughout the Southeast. In 1982, Southern Railway merged with Norfolk and Western Railway to create Norfolk Southern. This Norfolk Southern relay rail was used in the Alabama section of the system.
Cameron Rowland
RWE, 2017
Electrical power
Rheinisch-Westfälisches Elektrizitätswerk AG was founded in 1898 in Essen as a coal power company. In 1900 the leading coal producers were the U.S., the UK, and Germany. Germany has remained the leading coal producer in Europe. As of 2016, RWE was the largest electricity supplier in Germany, providing 23% of the country’s electrical power. In 2016, 44% of the company’s energy supply was derived from coal. Its four most productive plants are coal-powered, and are located in the Nordrhein-Westfalen region. The company operates 3 coal mines, which are located in the same region. The electrical power provider at Galerie Buchholz on Neven-DuMont-Straße has been changed and the power will be supplied by RWE for one year.